Although Lepidium draba is poorly established and known from old collections in the eastern part of the United States, it has become a noxious weed in several western states.

Lepidium draba and its nearest relatives, L. appelianum and L. chalepense, form a monophyletic clade most closely related to L. campestre (K. Mummenhoff et al. 2001). A. Thellung (1906) and C. L. Hitchcock (1936) correctly placed L. draba in Lepidium, as did Linnaeus. The recognition of the first three species in Cardaria and the maintenance of their nearest relative, L. campestre, in Lepidium do not make any sense on both phylogenetic and taxonomic grounds.